I find it incredible that Iowa, the team that sends OLM after OLM to the NFL, has a RS sophomore walk-on starting at LT. LT is probably the 3rd or 4th most important position on a team. I think most teams would have a starting RT that would move to that position or at least a reserve with a lot of playing time. I hope CJ has his head on a swivel.
A real statement on our recent recruiting efforts
- Thread starter Hawk68
- Start date
A couple of things that have always been unfathomable to me:
1) Why wouldn't most of the 4-star and 5-star OL have Iowa in their top choice?
2) Why wouldn't the best place kickers want to attend Iowa? Every game is close, every game is on TV, and the coach is conservative so he'll let you have a lot of opportunities from range.
1) Why wouldn't most of the 4-star and 5-star OL have Iowa in their top choice?
2) Why wouldn't the best place kickers want to attend Iowa? Every game is close, every game is on TV, and the coach is conservative so he'll let you have a lot of opportunities from range.
Because if it's not close to home, even most 4 and 5 star high school kids won't consider it.
Keep in mind it is even a former walk on. That's not to say that Boone will not do well, but it definitely says how much depth we lack there.
I'll cut Boone some slack. He must have the heart of a lion. Talent being "close", I'll take the kids with heart every time. The fact that Ferentz even thinks he's the guy speaks volumes for him.
Fair enough, but if you are a 4-star or 5-star prospect, you are basically considered to be NFL quality in 3-4 more years. I fully realize that doesn't pan out for every one of these kids (Blake Larson is a great example of a miss) but if you're thinking you will be a pro someday, I'd be more concerned with honing my craft than being close to home. Now, all of that said, I don't expect kids from the south to want to come here under any circumstances if they are that good (they want to play in the SEC anyway). But no excuse for us to not compete for all OL coming out of Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, etc. The border states plus maybe a couple others nearby.
I agree we need better OLM recruits. Also better at RNB, QTRB, LNBR, and CUN.
At some point people will realize and understand Ferentz and staff have recruited less than adequate B1G talent for some time now. There's a reason we have a losing record in the B1G over the past 5 years.
Oh, and by the way, a legacy recruit, Isaiah Pryor from New Jersey, whose father Richard played at Iowa, committed today to Ohio State before the start of his h.s. junior season. Tells me we never had a chance. We are irrelevant.
Oh, and by the way, a legacy recruit, Isaiah Pryor from New Jersey, whose father Richard played at Iowa, committed today to Ohio State before the start of his h.s. junior season. Tells me we never had a chance. We are irrelevant.
We are completely irrelevant. Recruiting is not going to get us to the top of the BIG 10 anytime soon. 30 losses in 5 years and will not get any better...especially when we add the 9th Big 10 game. Even if Ferentz left after this year, it would take 3 good recruiting classes minimum for us to climb the ladder.
Although I do not disagree with your comments on recruiting in general I do not agree with the notion that with KF or not that we are going to be able to consistently go toe-to-toe with Urban Freaking Meyer and Ohio State even for a legacy recruit. Get a line behind a long list of programs with more history and prestige than Iowa that lose out to Meyer on a regular basis.
Mark Stoops is beating Ohio St and Alabama for recruits. CREATE SOME DAMN EXCITEMENT IN THE PROGAM!!! Kirk had his chance over the past few years to really shake things up but had failed. We still have boring Greg Davis on the payroll and out new recruiting coordinator has successfully made our poor recruiting worse. Time is over for excuses.
1) Because they can go to a storied program with national title hopes and still make the NFL. Iowa is the land of feel good development stories.
2) Again, any kicker can make the NFL without a weak offense. These kids want to win and do it in style. Grandpa Kirk captures the attention of kids who care about doing things right and/or have no better offers.
Why don't you mamby pamby winey asses let the season play out before you piss your pants. Doesn't seem anyone has really focused on the importance of the assistants to a program. We lost a couple of real good coordinators. It takes time. Relax! Things are going to be ok.
And what has Mark Stoops exactly accomplished? Post back at me when he wins a national title at Kentucky. That's right Meyer and Saban have those. Football on that level requires about 40 of those wins in recruiting not a couple of wins that you are trumpeting.
Ok I don't think Pryor committing to the hottest team in the country that may win back to back national titles means Iowa is irrelevant. Others things might point to that but not Pryor.
Or another 4-5 star, Dan Doerring. Iowa has had more success turning 2 star TE recruits into NFL draftees than sure thing high school lineman.
I think you may be defeating your argument in your post. Even with what people refer to as KF's "lack of OL recruiting or talent", like you said, he keeps sending them again and again to the NFL, with 2 accompanied with Outland Trophies.
Recruiting and development at other positions is another debate, but I don't know if there is much deserved criticism at OL, especially when they haven't even snapped the ball, yet.
Mark Stoops is a recruiting machine at a basketball school! Seriously his recruiting since going to Kentucky is nothing less than remarkable considering the last 30 years at Kentucky. Put him at Iowa and u will see an instant increase in talent. Also, he ain't bad at game management either.
What are folks talking about here?
Iowa's recruiting problem on the O-line has less to do with OL-recruiting and more to do with the ERROR in how they were recruiting previously. They were focusing TOO MUCH on their top targets - assuming that if they made a guy feel special enough, that he'd pull the trigger in our favor. The problem is that when we missed out on our top targets - we had also been entering the recruiting race for our 2nd tier OL recruits too late in the game (they weren't feeling enough love) - and hence we'd be facing up-hill recruiting battles for those guys.
Iowa fans really need to look at the quality of talent we were just narrowly missing out on ... typically among the very top rated talents at left tackle (the money position). We missed on the likes of Diamond, Kouandjio, Piersbacher, and Kozan - 2 guys going to 'Bama and 2 guys going to Auburn. For most of those guys, we were either their #2 or #3 team - missing by just a narrow margin.
A few of the other top guys who we've whiffed on include Sterup, a native Nebraskan who opted for the Huskers (small surprise there); Marz, a Minny native, who opted for a Badger squad that had been winning with greater consistency than our Hawks; and Pirsig, a Minny native, who decided to remain in-state.
Lastly, if you look at our recruiting on the interior OL - we've had fewer problems recruiting there. The "problem" has dealt more with recruiting the no-brainer OT talent (particularly, left tackles). However, even then, the coaches already knew that they really liked who they had on the roster - even if they weren't highly touted. For example, it was obvious from even their redshirt year that Boettcher and Myers were going to be future starters - simply from how they carried themselves. Thus, the coaches already knew the level of talent they already had in the room - however, their primary error was that they should have also worked to establish better depth. Instead, they opted to spend the extra scholarships at WR and DB.
Iowa's recruiting problem on the O-line has less to do with OL-recruiting and more to do with the ERROR in how they were recruiting previously. They were focusing TOO MUCH on their top targets - assuming that if they made a guy feel special enough, that he'd pull the trigger in our favor. The problem is that when we missed out on our top targets - we had also been entering the recruiting race for our 2nd tier OL recruits too late in the game (they weren't feeling enough love) - and hence we'd be facing up-hill recruiting battles for those guys.
Iowa fans really need to look at the quality of talent we were just narrowly missing out on ... typically among the very top rated talents at left tackle (the money position). We missed on the likes of Diamond, Kouandjio, Piersbacher, and Kozan - 2 guys going to 'Bama and 2 guys going to Auburn. For most of those guys, we were either their #2 or #3 team - missing by just a narrow margin.
A few of the other top guys who we've whiffed on include Sterup, a native Nebraskan who opted for the Huskers (small surprise there); Marz, a Minny native, who opted for a Badger squad that had been winning with greater consistency than our Hawks; and Pirsig, a Minny native, who decided to remain in-state.
Lastly, if you look at our recruiting on the interior OL - we've had fewer problems recruiting there. The "problem" has dealt more with recruiting the no-brainer OT talent (particularly, left tackles). However, even then, the coaches already knew that they really liked who they had on the roster - even if they weren't highly touted. For example, it was obvious from even their redshirt year that Boettcher and Myers were going to be future starters - simply from how they carried themselves. Thus, the coaches already knew the level of talent they already had in the room - however, their primary error was that they should have also worked to establish better depth. Instead, they opted to spend the extra scholarships at WR and DB.
Given how smokin' hot some of those southern co-eds are ... and given the climate ... I can definitely understand the potential lure of Alabama. Now, if you really care about an education ... then that's quite another thing.
Yes, he sends AN OLM to the NFL probably every other year, but they have to play with three or four below average OLM's. KF's job is to win games, not send one great OLM to the pros. Take a damn look at our OLM depth please!
Yep, most doesn't mean all. Just like basketball, we don't have very many in our back yard but we don't seem to be able to keep them from going far away.
That is definitely changing.
Woodbury and Gesell (Sioux City area) both 4-star recruits. Uthoff came back home.
Also, future commits the McCaffery brothers (we had an inside track there) and most recently: Joe Weiskamp (Muscatine) all appear to be Top 100 recruits. Pemsl could move up also.
Iowa's OL is rarely just a superstar combined with a number of mediocre other guys. A few years back, the OL had Scherff, Tobin, and Blythe, and Donnal regularly rotated in ... that's a line comprised of more than just one NFLer.
Know a parent of a kid who wanted to walkon or Grey shirt at Iowa in 2010. Offered full rides by lots of DII teams and walk on at ISU and dad told "We're looking for kids to beat Ohio State, not UNI, sorry we don't have room". Anyway he got a decent partial for another sport and went to another D1 school where he became all conference in that sport. Saw the kid at some grad parties this year - looks like a NFL CB.
I'm guessing our standards are now changing.
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